Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
CHAPTER 9:01
Act
35 of 1913
Amended by
14 of 1939
32 of 1947
3 of 1955
2 of 1972
22 of 1977
*47 of 1980
*27 of 1981
6 of 1993
*28 of 2000
UNOFFICIAL VERSION
CHAPTER 9:01
PART I
THE ADMINISTRATOR GENERAL
4. Incorporation of and appointment to office of Administrator General
and discharge of his functions.
5. No security to be given.
6. Revenue Officer to assist.
7. Remuneration.
8. Commissions.
Appropriation.
9. Conflicting claims and interests.
PART II
DEVOLUTION OF PROPERTY
10. Devolution of legal estate in realty on representative.
10A. Judicially separated spouses not entitled to claims in intestacy
of each other.
11. Rights of persons beneficially entitled.
12. Transfer to persons beneficially entitled.
13. Deed of assent to be registered.
14. Appropriation of estate in satisfaction of legacy or share.
15. Partition by representative.
16. Land under Real Property Act.
PART III
ADMINISTRATION OF ESTATES, DISTRIBUTION OF
ESTATES, AND WAIVER OF RIGHTS OF THE STATE
ADMINISTRATION OF ESTATES
17. Intestates’ estates generally.
18. Small estates under $960 in absence of executor or administrator.
ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS—Continued
SECTION
19. Intestates’ estates under $960.
20. Dealing with estates of intestates not leaving next of kin.
21. Estate of party interested in administration.
22. Court may order administration and refer accounts, etc., to Judge.
DISTRIBUTION OF ESTATES
23. Distribution on intestacy.
24. Shares of spouse and issue.
25. Rights of cohabitants.
26. Estate going to parents.
26A. Distribution of estate to next of kin.
26B. Posthumous births.
26C. No successors.
PART IV
ESTATES OF PERSONS OF UNSOUND MIND
32. Administrator General may be constituted committee of insane person.
33. Insane persons’ estates.
PART V
GENERAL
34. Savings Bank deposits
35. Rules as to procedure.
36. Regulations for conduct of office of Administrator General.
UNOFFICIAL VERSION
CHAPTER 9:01
PART I
UNOFFICIAL VERSION
DEVOLUTION OF PROPERTY
Devolution of 10. (1) Where any real estate is vested for any term or estate
legal estate in beyond his life in any person without a right in any other person to
realty on
representative. take by survivorship, it shall, on his death, notwithstanding any
[3 of 1995].
testamentary disposition, devolve to and become vested in his
executor or executors or the administrator or administrators of his
estate (who and each of whom are included in the term
“representative”) as if it were a chattel real vesting in them or him.
And if such estate is held upon any trust or by way of mortgage, it
shall likewise legally devolve on the representative of any person
deceased in whom it has been vested during his life.
(2) This section shall apply to any real estate over which
a person executes by will a general power of appointment, as if it
were real estate vested in him.
(3) Probate and Letters of Administration shall be granted
in respect of, and shall take effect to vest in the executor or
administrator, all real estate and personal estate whatever, including
chattels real. And there shall be no devolution of estate by
inheritance in any case save that the beneficial interest therein shall
devolve as provided in Part III of this Act.
(4) On the death of any person all his estate real and
personal whatever within Trinidad and Tobago shall vest in law in
the Administrator General until the same is divested by the grant
UNOFFICIAL VERSION
11. (1) Subject to the powers, rights, duties, and liabilities Rights of
persons
hereinafter mentioned, the representative of a deceased person shall beneficially
hold the real estate as a trustee for the persons by law beneficially entitled.
entitled thereto, and those persons shall have the same power of
requiring a conveyance of real estate under section 12 as persons
beneficially entitled to personal estate have hitherto had of requiring
a transfer or delivery of such personal estate.
(2) All enactments and rules of law relating to the effect
of Probate or Letters of Administration on chattels real, and as
respects the payment of costs of administration and other matters
UNOFFICIAL VERSION
or transfer the land to that person, the Court may, if it thinks fit, on
the application of that person, and after notice to the representative,
order that the assent, conveyance, or transfer be made, or, in the
case of land under the Real Property Act, that the person so entitled Ch. 56:02.
be registered as a proprietor of the land, either solely or jointly
with the representative.
(3) The production of an assent or transfer by the
representative of a deceased proprietor of land under the Real
Property Act shall, subject to the provisions of such Act, authorise
the Registrar General to make the prescribed entry in the Real
Property Register of the title of the person named in the assent
or transfer as proprietor of the land, and such instrument shall
not be deemed to affect the title to such land until such entry has
been made.
13. A Deed or instrument under the last preceding section shall Deed of assent
to be registered.
have validity only when duly registered. No registration fee beyond [6 of 1993].
the sum of twenty-five dollars and no stamp duty shall be
chargeable in respect of any such deed or instrument.
PART III
UNOFFICIAL VERSION
such Will shall renounce and disclaim the execution of such Will,
or being duly cited shall refuse or neglect to prove such Will, and
in case of the death of any representative of any such person
deceased, for administration or administration with Will annexed
of the estate unadministered.
18. The Administrator General shall, as such, have power if Small estates
under $960, in
there is no executor appointed by Will or if there is no person who absence of
has obtained Letters of Administration to the estate of any deceased executor or
administrator.
person and in any case that appears to him to require him so to do,
pending the grant of Probate of any Will or of Letters of
Administration to such estate, to take possession of, seize, reduce
into possession, sell, realise, and get in the estate, real and personal,
or any person dying in Trinidad and Tobago or possessed of
property in Trinidad and Tobago, whenever such estate and effects
are shown not to amount in gross value to the sum of nine hundred
and sixty dollars, without applying for probate of any Will or grant
of Letters of Administration:
Provided that nothing herein contained shall be construed to
limit the power to issue administration conferred by rule 5 in the
First Schedule to the Wills and Probate Act. And administration Ch. 9:03.
under the said rule shall, if granted in respect of any estate so taken
possession of as hereinbefore mentioned, be deemed equivalent to
a grant of administration of the state unadministered by the
Administrator General:
Provided also, that in the event of its being made to appear at
any time after the Administrator General has proceeded to take
possession of any estate under the provisions of this section, that
such estate equals or exceeds in gross value the sum of nine hundred
and sixty dollars, then such possession and the acts done to obtain
the same and any sale or realisation of such estate and effects or of
any part thereof shall not be in any way invalidated, but the
Administrator General may forthwith proceed to apply for Probate
or Letters of Administration to be granted to him or to any person
or persons entitled.
19. In any case in which it appears that the property, real and Intestates’
estates under
personal, of or to which a deceased intestate has died possessed or $960.
entitled does not exceed in value the sum of nine hundred and
sixty dollars, and no application has been made by any person
entitled under rule 5 in the First Schedule to the Wills and Probate Ch. 9:03.
Act, it shall be lawful for the Administrator General to make
application as in such rule provided for the benefit of any person
UNOFFICIAL VERSION
24. (1) Where an intestate dies leaving a surviving spouse Shares of spouse
and issue.
but no issue, his estate shall be distributed to or held on trust for [28 of 2000].
the surviving spouse absolutely.
(2) Where an intestate dies leaving issue, but no spouse,
his estate shall be distributed per stirpes among the issue.
(3) Where an intestate dies leaving a spouse and one
child, the surviving spouse shall take one-half of the estate
absolutely and the other half shall be distributed to or held on
trust for the child.
(4) Where the intestate dies leaving a spouse and more
than one child, the surviving spouse shall take one-half the estate
absolutely and the remaining one-half shall be distributed to or
held on trust for the children.
another, only such part of the estate as was acquired during the
period of cohabitation shall be distributed to the cohabitant, subject
to the rights of a surviving spouse and any issue of the intestate.
(3) A surviving cohabitant claiming a share of the estate
of an intestate under this section shall, within twenty-eight days of
the death of the intestate, file with the Registrar of the Supreme
Court a notification of interest as the surviving cohabitant and,
within three months thereafter or such other time as the Court
considers appropriate having regard to all the circumstances, obtain
an order from the Court affirming the cohabitational relationship
with the intestate and stating the quantum of the share of the estate
to which the cohabitant is entitled.
(4) The Rules Committee shall make Rules for matters
arising under this section.
Estate going to
parents.
26. Where an intestate leaves no spouse, no cohabitant or no
[28 of 2000]. issue, the estate goes to the parents of the intestate in equal shares
or the survivor of them.
Distribution of 26A. Where the intestate leaves no spouse, no issue, no
estate to next of
kin. cohabitant and no parent, then his estate shall be distributed to or
[28 of 2000]. held on trust for his next of kin living at the time of his death in the
following order and manner:
(a) to the brothers and sisters of the whole blood in
equal shares;
(b) where there are no brothers or sisters of the whole
blood, to the brothers and sisters of the half blood
in equal shares;
(c) where there are no brothers and sisters of the
whole or half blood to the grandparents of the
intestate in equal shares;
(d) where there are no grandparents to the issue of
the brothers and sisters of the whole blood;
(e) where there is no issue of the brothers and sisters
of the whole blood to the issue of the brothers
and sisters of the half blood; and
(f) where there is no issue of the brothers and sisters
of the half blood to the uncles and aunts of the
intestate, being brothers and sisters of the whole
blood and then of the half blood of a parent of
the intestate.
UNOFFICIAL VERSION
28. Where a person has died intestate, and the value of the Grant of State
rights without
estate, real and personal, of such person does not exceed nine administration.
hundred and sixty dollars, and such estate of such person shall [28 of 2000].
Ord. 32—1947.
have vested in the Administrator General under the provisions of
subsection (4) of section 10, and no administration to the estate of
such person has been granted, it shall be lawful for the President
or any person duly authorised by him, at any time after the
UNOFFICIAL VERSION
31. A transfer under section 27 shall, as to any land therein Effect of transfer
under section 27.
comprised, be deemed in like manner to take effect by way of
entitling the person therein named to possession, and shall bind
the legal and beneficial estate in such land according to the tenor
thereof after the expiration of one year from its registration, unless
in the meantime application has been made on behalf of persons
claiming to be entitled as against the State to set aside the
administration granted to the Administrator General, or thereafter
in the event of all such applications being unsuccessful.
PART IV
33. The Administrator General shall possess himself of the Insane persons’
estates.
estate, real and personal, of any person of unsound mind resident
in Trinidad and Tobago where such estate does not exceed in
value the sum of four hundred and eighty dollars, without any
inquisition found, and may administer such estate for the benefit
of such person, and may take possession of, sell, and realise the
estate, real and personal, of such person and make such payments
out of such estate for the maintenance of such person, including
any payment to or on account of the Director of Medical Services
for the maintenance of such person in the mental hospital, as he
may think fit, and generally may exercise all the powers which
could be exercised by the legal personal representative of such
person if he were dead, without any proceedings being instituted
for the purpose.
PART V
GENERAL
34. Nothing in this Act contained shall be deemed in any way Savings
Bank deposits.
to affect the powers of the President and the Postmaster General
under the Post Office Savings Bank Act to pay, apply, and distribute Ch. 47:01.
Regulations for 36. In respect of the duties of the Administrator General and
conduct of office
of Administrator of his officers, and of any persons assisting him or acting for him,
General. and in respect of the manner of all applications to be made to and
all business to be transacted by or with the Administrator General
or such officers and other persons other than proceedings in the
Court, the Minister may make such Regulations as may be deemed
expedient; and such Regulations when made shall be published in
the Gazette and shall be binding on the Administrator General and
his officers and all persons assisting him or acting for him and all
persons affected thereby in the same manner as if the same were
embodied in this Act.
UNOFFICIAL VERSION
SUBSIDIARY LEGISLATION
ARRANGEMENT OF ORDERS
ORDER
1. Citation.
2. Commission to be paid to the Administrator General.
3. Commission to be paid where waiver is granted.
4. Commission payable under sections 27 and 28.
5. Commission payable on value of property.
6. Fees payable under sections 27 and 28 for resignation.
7. Estate duties payable in accordance with the Administration of
Estates Act.
Commission to
be paid where
3. A commission of 3 per cent is payable on all sums of money
waiver is in respect of which a waiver is granted.
granted.
Commission
payable under
4. On a transfer of real and personal estate (other than money)
sections 27 under sections 27 and 28 of the Act—
and 28.
Where the net value of the estate (after making
allowances for deductions as authorised by the
Ch. 76:02. Estate and Succession Duties Act for arriving at
the net value of an estate), does not exceed $480,
71/2 per cent commission is payable.
Where it exceeds $480, 10 per cent commission
is payable:
Provided that where the estate is insolvent, a
fee of $5.00 on every $480 (or part thereof) of
the gross value of the estate shall be payable:
Provided further that the amount of
commission payable on an estate at the rate
applicable thereto shall where necessary be
reduced so as not to exceed the highest amount
of commission which would be payable at the next
lower rate, with the addition of the amount by
which the value of the estate exceeds the value
on which the highest amount of commission
would be so payable at the lower rate.
UNOFFICIAL VERSION
7. Estate duty shall be paid on all estates subject to duty Estate duties
payable in
in accordance with provisions of the Estate and Succession accordance with
the Adminis-
Duties Act. tration of
Estates Act.
Ch. 76:02.